


Like father,

by Zan_scrawling



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 15:52:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zan_scrawling/pseuds/Zan_scrawling
Summary: Coran runs a diagnostic of the atlas.





	Like father,

The crystal glowed its constant, dependable blue, fixed in its power chamber. Coran’s hand lit up in its sphere of radiance, lumescence playing across his fingers like the marks on the chosen Alteans. Like Alfor. Like his grandfather. 

Coran sighed, and checked off the power source on his diagnostic of the atlas. It had only been four quintants since the fight with Sendak and the mysterious quintessence draining mech, but the ship, now transformed back to its original state, was running at full power. Even in its reduced state, his grandfather’s work lived on, supporting them. But the atlas was not the castle of lions. He was not its pilot. Coran wandered over to the control deck, laid his hand to the console, and watched the unfamiliar symbols and figures appear before him, lurid orange light turning his hands into pallid, unrecognisable instruments. 

‘Coran, I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, divert the minimal functioning power to the back up storage before you power the thrusters.’ 

‘Quiznak, yes grandfather!’ The castle’s controls still baffled him, despite his grandfather’s demonstrations. Well, demonstrations wasn’t the right word, exactly. Earnest, loudly voiced commands? 

The castle hummed as the crystal’s power was diverted first to the backup storage, then into the thrusters. Now, if Coran could just ease them up like he’d been asked, there, yes, now they were rising at a smooth pace, this wasn’t so hard. Well, yes, it was, but his grandfather needed a pilot, and Coran couldn’t let him down. Outside, the last of the light ebbed from the sky, catching on the Collerian diamond plains beneath them, blanketing the world in a glittering haze. A hundred feet, now one fifty, they were making a steady rise into the Altean stratosphere, the massive weight of the castle transfigured in the air into something lithe, graceful beneath his hands.

‘What, are we a fledgling Quelressian freshly emerged from the magma pits? I said power the thrusters, boy, not tickle them!’ 

His hands jerked beneath him, and the castle shuddered, stopped dead. Coran gulped, why were his hands so sweaty? For a moment he feared he’d prematurely contracted a case of the slipperies. The lights blinked rapidly, graphs wavering, flashing up and down seemingly at random, and Coran moved his hands rapidly through the controls, sensing his way back to the base thrusters and re-establishing his tennuous command over the castle. They surged back into motion, but if anything, they were rising slower now. 

‘Come now, General Wimbleton, I’m rather enjoying the view. No need to rush a late equinox sunset, is there?’

King Alfor’s hand was steady, assuring on Coran’s shoulder. ‘You’re doing great, Coran,’ he said in a lower voice. ‘No need to take it fast, just ease it up like you’re doing. Believe me, this is a thousand times more smooth than my first spin at a command ship, and let me tell you the Dianthus was nowhere near the size or complexity of the Castle of Lions. I’m sure your father would say the same.’

‘Thank you, your majesty.’ Coran relaxed, eased the castle’s acceleration up a clip, maintained the rise in speed for a moment then stabilised it once more. He was beginning to see his grandfather’s design in the controls, really only a more intuitive upgrade to the design of the Saturnal ships, which Coran had been flying since his private days. They breached through the stratosphere, and half of Altea opened up beneath them, a world of burnished reds and glinting mineral, endless deep blue around them. From up here, all seemed possible once more.

That sunset, millenia gone, ebbed into the orange light of the control panel. The figures whirred before him, endless possibilities. He lowered his hands from the panel. ‘It’s time to stop living in the past, isn’t it?’ 

The door slid open behind him. 

‘Coran! There you are, we’ve been looking all over for you- oh? Planning a midnight test flight?’ 

Coran turned to see Allura, up though wrapped firmly in the‘dressing gown’ with the garrison’s symbol on the pockets that Lance had insisted the both of them wear, unused to the cold desert earth nights as they had both found out they were. 

‘Princess! Oh, you should be resting, it’s much too soon since the attack for you to be up. Besides, it’s the middle of the night.’ 

Allura moved further into the room, looking around at the vast, empty space, dark but for the glow of the control panel. ‘It’s no castle, but you handled it like you’d built it with professor Holt. You, Shiro, and the garrison commanders made a wonderful team, your very own voltron!’ The princess smiled, easily and wide, like she had as a child showing him her drawings. She layed her hand on his shoulder. ‘Father would be proud, as am I.’

Coran did not meet her eye. ‘It won’t be the same, now. I’m not sure we can restore the castle. I can’t be there for you and the paladins like before.’ 

Allura, to his surprise, laughed. ‘Coran, if there is one thing I can always be certain of, it is that you will be there for me. And I think I know some others who feel the same.’

‘Awh, Coran! Finally, guys, Allura found him!’ Lance burst into the atlas’s control deck, followed by Hunk and Pidge. Pidge was carrying a book under her arm, which she pushed into Coran’s hands. He looked down, thankful he’d asked number five to teach him the Paladin’s ‘English’ before they’d arrived. Over a highly detailed image of a robed monster were the words ‘Dungeon Master’s Guidebook.’ 

‘Look what Leifsdotter gave us!’ Pidge babbled. ‘It’s earth’s version of ‘Monsters and Mana!’ I couldn’t sleep, and neither could the rest of the team, so me and Hunk got talking and -I’ve already configured a spare control panel to project a virtual space and receive inputs from some character chips me and Hunk hooked up. It’s still going to feel like primitive low tech compared to the setup we had on the castle, but we’ll make it work.’ 

‘Haha yeah, but we can’t get started without our Lore Meister’ said Lance. 

‘Master,’ Hunk cut in. 

‘Right, that’s what I said. We need our Lore Master to spin us a tale of high adventure and peril and all that fantasy junk from last time.’

‘Yeah man,’ Hunk nodded. ‘After that completely wild battle for the fate of the planet and, you know, the lives of our loved ones, I think we all need something fun.’

Coran stood blinking in the light from the panel, the paladins arrayed eagerly around him. The princess stood, her hands held sheepishly before her, a young girl again asking him to help her pick flowers for her father’s return. 

Coran beamed and flung his arms around Lance and number five’s neck. ‘Well okay,’ he said, leading them away from the deck and back off the ship into the hanger, ‘but I warn you, these dungeons and/or dragons shall not be easily overcome! Who knows, perhaps the wizard Dacon’s master has been using the Jewel of Jitaan for his nefarious plans?’

Pidge gasped, her eyes brightening, and Lance grinned. ‘Jewel of Jitaan, huh? Sounds valuable.’ 

Allura followed them out, clicking the latch closed as she went. The control panel blinked, throwing the room into darkness, muffled voices raised in excitement as they walked together, back into their hard won safety and each other’s company.


End file.
